"I wish I had but a moment of consciousness," lamented the zombie.

` Okay, it's Halloween today. Whaddaya want?

` Seriously, though - no one really knows how consciousness works. While you are focusing on some sort of mental activity, certain areas of the brain will certainly light up - yet at the same time there are a lot of neural background activities which no one really understands. In fact, many neurons actually seem to fire without being triggered by anything else, though no one knows why that occurs.

` And yet, from this seemingly random tirade of signals comes... your mind.

` And does your conscious mind perceive things as continuously as you might think? Are your mental flittings recorded as discrete moments - as in movie frames - or are they all melded together?
` Furthermore, are different aspects of one event processed in synchrony, or it that just the way it looks to us?
` That's what I'm writing about today. Lucky you.

` According to Talis Bachman of the University of Tartu in Estonia, the conscious perception of any one sensation may some take time to develop - like a Polaroid.
` There is enough delay-time in the brain for this to work: For example, it takes about half a second for one to be consciously aware of anything coming from the senses, which can be evident to the layman when one remembers how one automatically reacts to stimuli before they realize it.
` Indeed, your reactions to things tend to be remembered closer in time to when you actually become consciously aware of them!

` For example, one experiment by Simon J. Thorpe involved an EEG hooked up to the heads of subjects looking at a screen. On this screen were flashed images for mere fractions of a second, and the subjects involved were to decide whether or not each image contained an animal of some kind of another.
` These individuals required less than half a second to give the correct answer! (There were similar results when they were asked to press a button to indicate whether an image showed a car or another means of transportation.)
` In the first fractions of a second after each animal-or-no-animal pictures were presented, the EEG patterns were nearly identical. Now, it takes about 30-50 milliseconds for nerve impulses to travel from the retina to the visual centers of the cerebral cortex all the way in the back of the head. By 150 milliseconds, the EEG readings showed that the brain's evoked potential was different, depending on if the image seen had an animal or not.
` This means that it took about a tenth of second for the cerebral cortex to tell the difference between pictures with animals and pictures without. This is so amazingly fast that it can only be explained by a very large amount of parallel processing at work.

` And yet... as it takes about half a second for someone to consciously perceive something, the person is not actually aware of the distinction until after it is recognized by certain parts of the brain.

` This ultra-fast processing gives the mind enough room in time to, in hindsight, perceive two different stimuli as one.
` For example, it's been known for decades that two flashes of light that are very close-together in time can be perceived as one flash. Also, different notes in a trilling bird call sound like a mere buzzing to human ears, while the birds would seem to be able to pick out each note.
` Not only this, but the visual registering of one image can distort or suppress images that were perceived before or afterwards if they are flashed quickly on a monitor.

` This effect is called 'masking'.

` Robert Efron of the University of California at Davis discovered that this blending together of two sensations in rapid succession is the most common. When he flashed a red light for ten milliseconds, and then a green light for ten milliseconds, his subjects reported the sensation of seeing both red and green light at the same time - in other words, they said the light was yellow!

` Stanislas Dehaene at INSERM in Orsay, France, decided to study the way the brain processes words in a similar way. Dahene's subjects were lying in an fMRI scanner with a series of slides flashing in rapid succession. On them were simple words, which appeared for barely 30 milliseconds - just long enough for them to be decoded. However, if random images appeared before and after the word, it was not nearly as likely to be recognized.
` When the word was able to be read, it could be seen on the fMRI that the brain suddenly acted up in various locations (such as the vision and speech centers). However, when the random images were flashed before and after the word, brain activity was confined to parts of the visual cortex that operate in the early input phases of vision, and the processing to recognize the word was more or less intercepted.

` But even when two images are shown a tenth of a second after one another, the second image can still keep the first from being consciously processed. In this case, however, if a subject were to guess the first image, they can guess correctly, as it has had time to be processed subconsciously.
` This isn't so surprising, considering that people who lack only the parts of the brain to consciously process visual signals are still able to correctly guess at what they must be seeing on a subconscious level. (That phenomena is known as 'blind sight.')

` Brain damage aside, it takes time to get a subconscious 'idea' of what something is - about 100 milliseconds - and it takes a little longer - 50 more milliseconds - to be consciously aware of this recognition without having to guess.
` In other words, there is a tiny amount of time within which you can become aware of something. It is called a 'minimal perceptual moment'. However, it seems that brain activity just after a stimulus - causing 'backwards masking' - disturbs the signals trying to make their way to the parts of the brain which consciously register things.
` Not only that, but signals from a previous stimulus may interrupt the development of new signals in your conscious mind.

` In other words, signals compete for conscious awareness. And when sensory signals are just going wild in your perception, blended together in different ways, it is a wonder that the brain is able to integrate everything into a coherant picture without much in the way of time lags.

` Semir Zeki of University College London is a Neurobiologist who's spent immense amounts of time studying things like this. For example, he measured how squares that change color while also changing direction register in people's brains as they watch them on a screen.
` A change in the square's color is actually seen 60 to 80 milliseconds faster than its simultaneous change in direction.
` In other words, it looks as if the square changes color before it changes direction. That's because the brain is composed of many complex areas - one processes color, one processes form, another processes sound, and there are others for speed, direction, and so forth.
` Of course, each different area of the brain takes a different amount of time to process each aspect.

` And yet, the modular brain somehow seems to create a unified consciousness: Usually, the time differences in processing are not noticed by the conscious mind and the entire picture is perceived as happening at the same moment.

` This isn't always the case, of course, if there is something wrong with one's brain. As an example, some poeple have 'cinematographic vision', which can be caused by migraine headaches.
` Oliver Sacks was the neurologist/writer who came up with the term for the times when people see a flickering series of still images which don't overlap at all. Each image seems to last for a long time by itself - instead of superimposed onto other images - and then suddenly jumps to another image further along in time.
` He described one woman in a hospital ward who had begun to draw a bath and had been transfixed by the spigot when the water got about an inch deep. Eventually, the tub filled up without her noticing and the water began to overflow.
` Sacks, who had happened to see the tub overflowing, touched her, whereupon she seemed to snap out of it and finally saw the water overflowing. She said later that what she had seen while the tub was filling up was merely a still image of the pouring faucet with an inch of water in the basin.
` He had also experienced cinematographic vision after ingesting a popular drink of Micronesia called sakau, seeing "a succession of stills, like a film run too slow, its continuity no longer maintained."

` And yet, normal moment-to-moment perception does not appear to be split into discrete moments. Each frame is fused to the next, more or less seamlessly. Events which happen at almost the same time - whether due to external stimuli or merely differences in processing speeds of various brain components - appear to happen at exactly the same time: Information that differs temporally is somehow poured into the same perceptual moment in time, in order to make the world more coherant.
` Additionally, time can appear to pass more slowly or more quickly - depending on such things as how much fun you're having.
` Like a film, when fewer mental 'frames' are taken per second, time seems to speed up. When more frames are taken per second, things seem to go in 'slow motion'.

` For example, when when people are faced with tornadoes or earthquakes tearing up the structures around them, or even simple high-speed car crashes, time does indeed seem to go in slow-motion. In fact, police officers are sometimes able to describe in great detail the sight of their bullets striking the criminals they're shooting at, entering their flesh, and bursting out the other side.
` Sometimes, other senses besides sight fade out at the same time, perhaps due to the immense levels of processing needed just for registering so many perceived visual moments in time. In other words, in order to keep vision coherant, other parts of one's awareness are trumped.

` How exactly the brain does this, no one knows.

` And studying the perception of moments is a very tricky business to begin with: Devices like the fMRI can only record in time-scales of seconds rather than milliseconds, and EEGs can only tell you the firing rate of just a handful of neurons.
` So really, we don't have the means to probe very deep into the workings in consciousness, though I trust that, as it has been, we will continue to be better and better equipped for this kind of study.

` I'll keep you posted.

` Nevertheless, I still have the darndest craving for human brains... BRAAAIIINNNSSS!!

Mua ha ha ha ha ha ha haaa! >:D

` I've been meaning to say this for a while, so I'll say it: I'm not really who you may think I am - you see, my alter-ego is this unassuming, attractive early-twentysomething. In fact, my real identity is closer to an evil comic book villain. I've been hiding it from everyone because it's so pathetic I can't stand it.

` In other words, I've been a Calculating Evil Closet Case all this time.

` Today I just thought I'd come clean, just so you all know what's happened to me if I suddenly seem to go insane.
` You see, my arch-nemesis is literally a mad doctor who - a couple years back - tortured me with a bone saw, ultimately twisting my mind, causing me to become this way, no matter what I do. It seems, the better my post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms are getting, the more strong are my urges to somehow... destroy the man who made me... more awful than I used to think I was beforehand!
` He has the daunting name of... Dr. Benninger!

` I don't much remember what he looks like anymore - as I have blocked it out of my memory - however, this picture oddly reminds me of him...
` You'd laugh if you'd met him... Trust me.
` Now, I do have the conviction that I'm really a very good person, even though, no matter what I do, I wake up screaming in terror each night (or at least hyperventilating) and my only solace is that I have the mind not to accidentally strangle Phil in his sleep. (You see, I'd tried to strangle Benninger once, only I was too weak to do anything more than scream expletives, writhe in agony, and cough up blood.)
` But instead of smashing random objects in anger, I fantasize profusely about doing such horrible acts as castrating Benninger with a hammer.
` Knowing him and other people who have encountered him, I figure that I cannot be the only one.
` I'd love to see him in jail, really, though unfortunately the legal system's glitches would almost certainly allow him to slip through, according to several lawyers. Depending on how good my evidence is, anyway.

` It is because of him that I've lost most of the feeling in my body - particularly in and around all of my bodily orifices - and it is because of him that I was sent to a mental hospital... well, him and some know-nothing who apparently told someone in the ER that I might have schizophrenia, 'because that couldn't have possibly happened to anyone'.
` The basis for this assessment? 'That guy wouldn't do that! I've met him!' Therefore, I'm automatically delusional about who did what to me! Just another example of the incompetence of Medina, Ohio's medical system (and its non-skeptical logic) right there...

` Not only that, but I... still... hate... my... body! It repulses me. I hate having it. I feel like I'm covered in... filth of some kind, all the time.
` Trying to wash it off somehow makes it seem worse...
` Part of it's because I don't like touching any part of me - it reminds me that I am indeed corporeal, which is very unpleasant for me. Thinking about the way I was so violently violated reminds me of the feeling I get from this highly disturbing comic strip.
` Hopefully, no more explanation is neccesary for my personal feelings. And don't worry, your eyes will eventually stop bleeding. Your mind, on the other hand, may require bleach. Tumble dry on low.

` Anyway, just thought I'd inform anyone who cares that now I am facing my emotions, the more twisted and demented I'm getting. Considering that this man is still out there and is perfectly capable of torturing someone else.
` It won't be long until I'm building Killer Death Rays and cloning Voracious Giant Shrew Minions! Or worse... doing just what Negaspork eventually succeeded in doing, and being just as shallow in personality!!


` I mean, what would everyone do if I actually attempted to destroy a large object such as the earth? How could I live with myself? It's a pretty horrible thing to ponder.
` I just can't think of what I could do to prevent myself from ruthlessly hurting people - especially ones who apparently deserve it. Ideologically, I prefer to be nonviolent, and I think that cutting open someone's abdominal cavity to eat their liver as they scream at the top of their lungs is just plain wrong!
` Even if livers can regenerate!
` What will I do? Will I become evil and... stuff? So far, I've discovered that procrastination works pretty well. Instead of muttering; "I will destroy him," to myself in the darkness, I now say; "I will destroy him... later!"
` As long as it's always 'later', I will probably not bother plotting to torture this horrible, horrible man. Or any of his descendents.

` Or preventing him from having any descendents by going back in time and bursting his testicles like large, hairy grapes.

` Any suggestions?

Secondhand Vampire Spiders!

` Dory pointed this article out to me from Discovery.com. Very strange indeed... it's about an East African jumping spider, studied by Ximena Nelson...

The spider, Evarcha culicivora, lacks the ability to pierce skin and to sip blood, so instead it feeds indirectly on blood by choosing, as its preferred meal, female mosquitoes that have just engorged themselves with a victim's blood.

The blood-hungry spider is the first predator ever identified that selects its prey based upon what the prey just ate. Similar to a protein shake, blood can be a highly nutritious drink that goes down smoothly.

` A spider that feeds on second-hand blood! It can consistently tell a blood-filled female mosquito apart from other mosquitoes by both its sense of smell alone and by sight alone.
` It can accurately pick out a blood-fed mosquito and pursue only that one!
` So, why not crawl onto prey and get blood directly? One reason is that it could get swatted before it could crawl away (and I guess this would make sense since they can't fly like mosquitos can). Also, their mouthparts are held close to the face, instead of pointing forwards as in mosquitos. If they should stab themselves, accidentally, they could die.
` (It is easy to see how the primarily nectar-feeding mosquitoes could have evolved to feed on blood - they had sucking mouthparts to begin with.)
` Really, I guess it makes sense that they don't go to the source of blood, as jumping spiders are made to pounce on small insects. This species merely singles out the ones that are full of blood, and Africa is a hotspot for those.
` The article concludes:

Steve Heydon, senior scientist and collection manager for the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California at Davis, was surprised to hear of the discovery.

"I know of parasitic wasps that find their caterpillar prey based on the smell of the caterpillar's feces, but I'd never heard of a spider like this before," Heydon told Discovery News. "Spiders don't have much sense of smell, so that part of the study is especially surprising."

Heydon agrees with Nelson that spiders now probably lack the right body parts and structure to evolve into direct bloodsuckers, but he does not completely rule this out for the distant future.

"Maybe spiders will end up like bed bugs," he said. "They could have that bed-bug lifestyle of laying around and coming out at night when a big, huge, monstrous food item comes tantalizingly near them and simply goes to sleep."

` In other words, this is a possible way that a jumping spider could evolve into a parasite by graduating from secondhand blood in mosquitoes to fresh blood in large vertebrates, which was just what I had been thinking.

Monomolecular Wheels

` Weird! This morning I checked out my inbox extra-early to find an article in the Materials Science and Nanotechnology section of Nature publications, describing an odd kind of rolling prototype vehicle that is 3x4 nanometers in size!

` Says the article:

Their chassis is shaped like a letter H, with two axles linked by a central rod. All these units are composed of carbon–carbon triple bonds alternating with benzene rings.

The key to the nanocar is the wheels. These are made of C₆₀ molecules attached to the tips of the axles, joined by bonds that are free to rotate.

` I am guessing that these molecules are cylinderical fullerenes, also called nanotubes.

These nanoscale molecules stick to a gold surface and, when warmed to above 170 °C, begin to move. This happens in a zigzag fashion: a nanocar travels in a single direction for a short distance, and then pivots to a new direction before proceeding again. The forward motion is always perpendicular to the orientation of the axles, which is evident from STM images in which the four C₆₀ molecules can be clearly seen.

` According to all the tests they've pulled on these things, the wheels really are rolling forward - in fact, ones with three different axles can only spin in place like office chairs with three fixed wheels.
` James Tour's team at the Rice University in Houston are the ones who are responsible for making what may be the smallest molecular monstrosities in Texas!

You know what they say about Luminas...

` They're a bitch to maintain.

` Apparently so are servers, sometimes... it erased my whole post! (Why didn't I copy it this time, the one time it just erased my post for no apparent reason?) It was really funny! Uggggggh.
` Anyway, it was a history of the humorous little blunders I've had each time my car breaks down while trying to drive.

` My car, by the way, is a 93 Chevy Lumina, and according to the serial number, it's also a Euro. Whatever the difference is. As proof of its existence, I have this satellite photo to show you, from when it was parked in a driveway in Medina, Ohio.
` Yes, it's that burgundy rectangle in the middle. Apparently, everyone living there at the time was at work while I was slacking off. Typical.

` Anyway, my roommate, EdgeWalker - who has not had his license for that long - was driving my burgundy rectangle home from work last night on the bridge on Highway 2. He was going 50 miles per hour when he noticed that, ahead of him, there was a long line of stopped cars. So he pushed on the brake.
` And nothing happened. So he put it into first gear and pumped up the parking brake, which caused the car to slow down and, after another driver had dodged their vehicle out of the way, rolled to a stop.
` Somehow, he managed to drive it like this back to the parking garage. How, I have no idea, though he might be writing about it soon.
` Apparently, what happened was that, while he was driving, all the brake fluid just leaked out at the same time!
` He's good. Considering how little experience he has.

` This morning, I attempted to move the car to the mechanic's down the street, but I soon discovered that the parking brake would not even stop the car from idling - the only way to halt it now was to put it in park!
` Not good for the transmission!
` Thankfully, Phil decided that it was time for 'personal business', so he bought me some more brake fluid and actually drove down the block to the mechanic's for me before it leaked out! What a good Mr. Yummy!

` I have no idea what happened this time, but it's probably another problem that's characteristic of Luminas... I'll bet you!

I'm back! Also; Harry Potter cover art!

` Three days ago, just after my last post, Phil and EdgeWalker moved my computer and piano into our bedroom - and a couple of bookshelves out! Oh, so wonderful! It's like... my own bedroom office!
` EdgeWalker also has one, now that my comp is cleared out of his room. He even has his own desk, thanks to a guy who was moving out of B Building - he ironically was helped by Jontrello Pontrello lug his belongings down the stairs, as the elevator had given out.
` I'm not sure, but I think that was also the guy who was forced to move out due to not being able to shut his dog up. (The one that used to really annoy me, which I've mentioned before...)
` A-ny-how... today is the first day that we changed the position of the wireless router, so I now have the internet in here! Whee!

` And what else did I do today? I walked a bunch - all the way up to the crazy house, in fact. After crazy lessons, I had lunch at a cafe, deposited a check from EdgeWalker, returned Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to the library, picked up a couple neato coffee-table books about elephants, and lugged those and a safe we'd gotten in the mail up to the apartment. Whew!
` Man, that Half Blood Prince is such a good book! It's at least as good as The Prisoner of Azkaban, (though sadder, but not as depressing as The Order of the Phoenix), and it explains a great deal about what's really been going on all this time in books 1 through 5. Lotsa detail, and as usual, I found it hard to put it down.

` It's kinda sad to think that the next book will be the last... Hey, that's right! I've got those images on hand... yes, I just love book illustrations all of a sudden. They're so... illustrative. I think I finally understand them, now that I can use pictures to help me visualize things I've never seen before. Really, I've had a tough time picturing things in my head for practically my whole life, although now, at age twenty-three, I'm finally learning to use my imagination.
` Doesn't that sound odd? That also makes this the first Harry Potter book in which I could picture what's happening! At least a little bit. The other ones? Well, let me tell you, I don't know exactly what was going through my mind, but it wasn't pictures. I was what I call 'mind's eye blind'.
` Amazingly constant stress does that to me - stress I've had until about now. You see, I had grown up without learning to use pictures to fuel my imagination! You might not think so because I'm such an artist - and you'd have evidence of that if EdgeWalker would please take some pictures of my artwork... I think he has to buy a flash first (his was stolen).

` Anyhow, these are the pictures of cover art I just happen to have on my computer... you see, until this year, I didn't know that the covers of Harry Potter books were entirely different in Britain (and possibly other countries), even though I've seen ones in other languages sold in other countries have the same cover art as the American editions! Weird.
` In fact, as you can see, the first book even has two different English titles, depending on what country it's sold in. I didn't know before, but originally, the Sorceror's Stone was called the Philosopher's Stone.
` I also really didn't care for the artwork by the American edition's artist, Mary GrandPre (especially that unicorn), though in the later books, it thankfully evolves from goofy to more awesome and realistic (even though everyone's eyes are drawn too high).
` The other Harry Potter cover is... well, British looking! As it should be!
` I'd also like to see the page illustrations - they're probably less weird than Mary GrandPre's. I really thought that a lot of her illustrations were... um... clumsy-looking, and a couple times I couldn't even tell what they were supposed to be at first!

` And even better than finding this out, I also discovered that there are two different editions of each British book! These are all Year 5...



` U.S., U.K., and U.K. adult!

` I like the adult editions's covers even better. They're so pretty! They're meant to look like; 'this means business!' Well, how else could an adult get away with reading this kind of thing in public?
` And now my curiosity's piqued... I've found Year 6's various covers on the internet...

` See, the American version's cover shows Harry and Prof. Dumbledore looking over Something That Isn't Very Palatable, and on the back is Ron, Hermione and apparently Ginny, and the Dark Mark of unspeakable evil and whatnot over the castle, signifying that someone's been killed by A Really Evil Person.
` Yes, a Really Evil Person. It may be Voldemort - I mean, He Who Must Not Be Named! - or it may be one of his Death Eaters. I won't spoil it for you.

` Here are the British covers of the same book (which of course have the original British spellings, as well as a few other variations).
` The regular edition shows Dumbledore with Harry, warding off some Really Scary Things with a kind of fire-lasso.
` The adult edition cover depicts the old book which used to belong to the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

` I just wish they'd kept the British artwork for all the editions of the book! Don't you think that would be better? I mean, who is Mary GrandPre to draw entirely different artwork in 'soft geometry', when it already has perfectly decent artwork! Darn her!
` Darn her to heck!!!
` Likewise, I don't generally care for her illustrations, as most of them aren't that helpful, being all clunky and weird. While some of them have the realism the story evokes, I think that most of GrandPre's illustrations kind of 'screw it up.'
` In addition, I bet the British editions have even better page illustrations! I just don't know what they look like, or who made them. Grrrrr.

` Of course, there's plenty of other perfectly good Harry Potter Illustrations by many people, such as Sebastien Theilig. I think his Dumbledore looks more like Gandalf from the LOTR movies! Most of the other characters he's drawn, unsurprisingly (and I'm sure, coincidentally), look almost exactly like the ones from the Harry Potter movies!
` There's also a lot of 'cartoony' fan art on the web, including manga-style. *Shudder* That brings back bad Anime memories... In fact, there are all different styles and... levels... to be seen in the Harry Potter Fanart Challenge's archive pages! But I go on too much...

` Anyway I hope that from now on, my own illustrations will be able to depict the new images I am forming in my head. I haven't yet tried it out.
` Fancy that... drawings from my real, honest-to-goodness imagination - instead of copied from real life! I bet I could do it...
` And you could see, too, if Edgy ever gets another flash. I could get him one for Christmas... oh that's right. He doesn't celebrate Christmas. Well, neither do I. But I'll use that as an excuse. Gee, I wonder when his birthday is?
` Anyway, someday, I know, I'll have drawings up here. And they will be imaginitive.

` Speaking of being imaginative, I think J.K. Rowling has a really imaginitive website! [OBVIOUS PLUG!!] The Flash version's got all kinds of objects to manipulate - which can be disorienting, though there's little games you can play with them. Joanne herself is also a very cool person, and I'm glad she's busy dispelling rumors about all sorts of things as well!

` Anyway, I gotta go.

Quiz: What in the Blazes?

` This is quite simple: Now that I know that some people actually look at my blog, I'll invite them to guess what this is a picture of.
` I'm the one who ran it through with Adobe and put it up on ImageShack (plus, a larger version is set for my desktop image), and I know exactly what it is. But can you guess?

` What is this a photograph of?



` Clue: The color of the object pictured is actually off-white - it's only colored to look like a pit in hell or something, but I assure you that it isn't any kind of fire.
` Also, it isn't cake icing, though the object in question does indeed look as if it is a frosted... object of some sort.

` And... go!

` Note: EVERYONE who comes across this post is invited to guess in my comments section. (e.g. Dory, George, Jim, Chrissy, my mother, Tom, Daniel, people I don't know.) In fact, anyone who's anyone is welcome to comment on any of my posts!
` If you're not a Blogger, remember, you can choose to post your comment as 'Other' or 'anonymous'. You don't have to have an account here! Do I make myself clear? I shall probably post the answer in the comments section later on.

The Discovery of Oxygen

` You know that gas we breathe, in order to metabolize food? Yes, oxygen. Well, it had to have been discovered at some point, right? In fact, it was discovered twice, by two different people during a time of political upheaval in the late 1700s.

` One of these people was an English rebellious 'heretic' Unitarian named Joseph Priestly who was a 'natural philosophy' enthusiast. While the Classical Greek explanation that air was an elemental substance was widely accepted, he - being skeptical and all - was doubtful about this notion. Why? Because nature showed some evidence against this idea:

` Consider that at this time, the prevailing explanation of how burning took place was that an unmeasurable substance called phlogiston was a primary element of matter that became released in fire.
` Priestly puzzled over the fact that this theory did not explain why metals actually became heavier after they were burned. They must have been gaining some kind of substance, but what?

` In one of his experiments, Priestly placed a lighted candle in a jar filled with mercuric oxide and a 'mystery gas'. He expected that the candle would quickly be extinguished.
` However, it burned even more vigorously than before! Similarly, placing a mouse in a jar with this same gas caused it to live longer than a mouse trapped with the ordinary atmosphere.
` He called it 'dephlogisticated air', as this particular gas had phlogiston added to it only by the activities of breathing and burning.
` Not an unimportant thing to uncover... however, being a religious heretic and all, he had to flee the country. Some people are so underappreciated.

` The other person credited with this important discovery was a French aristocrat named Antoine Lavosier. He was one of the king's tax collectors, and also took science even more seriously than did Priestly.
` He, too, thought that the assumption at the time about the way fire worked as a substance just didn't add up.

` The exciting conclusion: when I'm done with breakfast.

` Okay, okay, I was done with breakfast an hour and a half ago, and Phil's still prattling on about how it's not contradictory that he assumes the universe is conscious. He doesn't seem to realize that, because there is no evidence of this, that I (being a skeptic) don't care whether or not this is true.
` I'll write about that some other time...

` Anyway, Lavosier created acids in his scientific experiments, and managed to isolate the same gas as Priestly. He discovered that, for example, phosphorous and sulfur absorb a gas when it is burned, rather than expel something. Also, reducing calcified lead to metallic lead releases a gas which extinguishes both flames and animals (now called carbon dioxide).
` This was highly intriguing. In time, Antoine figured out that this 'dephlogisticated air' was the gas responsible for combustion.
` He called it oxygen, short for oxys-gainomai, which means 'acid-engenderer' in Greek. Why? Because at the time, all acids were thought to contain oxygen - in other words, substances would need to be partly oxygen if they were to be acids.
` Though Lavosier was beheaded in the French Revolution, this 'oxygen' thing he'd found is no doubt a very important part of the beginning of modern chemistry.

` It was but one small step in understanding the world, and though this discovery could have happened in other ways, subsequently unvocering what oxygen actually is has allowed scientists to develop chemistry and understand how oxidation (as in rusting), rapid oxidation (as in bonfires), and metabolism works.
` We know now that, for example, fats and carbohydrates are full of energy that can only be liberated when life forms oxidize them. This is not something I'd expect that the discoverers of oxygen could have dreamed would happen from their own 'messing around' with nature.

` And there you have it folks, something I decided to write about for no apparent reason!

A Barnes without a Barnes?

` Oh yes, these guys again...

` Here's some more Voobaha stuff, in case anyone is even close to being interested. You see... it would appear that these two goofy-looking Lumanians (yes, this is quite an old picture), may actually not be continuing with their goofy-sounding band.
` Or... it is just a silly drama? To manipulate us Barnes and Barnes enthusiasts? I'm sure it is... but ignoring that...
` So, is it the end?
` Are the Barneses losing cohesion? Well, currently, Artie seems to be pretty enthusiastic about things. Even questions!


` I just listened to Ah-A for the first time (yes, I do live under a rock) and I realized something... that flute sound is from a Korg, is it not Art/Artie?
` KORGS RAWK!
` I know because I have a Korg M1+1. [It's Phil's, okay?]
` I've always wondered - how competent are either of you at playing a keyboard?

Spoony Quine

` Perhaps I should have rephrased that... oh well. What I didn't expect here was when, only about two minutes later, I noticed this:

I think that sound is made by our Oberheim ob-8. We are both keyboard wizards....

R.T.


` GASP! Omniscient-looking instantaneous e-mail response! You're apparently also an e-mail-answering wizard! I feel warm and fuzzy now. You're just good. Of course you are - you're frickin' Artie Barnes!!

` Well, I guess that doesn't show much as far as enthusiasm, but it's all I have right now, and I like my posts to go in kind of a little story-fashion. Telling a story, I shall have to ask you to play along...
` As for Mr. Mumy, he went and did something musical all by hisself not too long ago...

Art Barnes writes:

By the way, I hear that Billy Mummy is playing a solo set of music at Genghis Cohen, on Fairfax and Melrose tomorrow night at 9:15. That Billy Mummy's pretty good. He wrote that song, "Talking". I liked that song. He's not so bad. Maybe we should all go to Genghis Cohen. Or not. Who cares? Hard business...

` See? He's enthusiastic, music-wise, even when he knows lots of people get his name wrong! One of his loyal fans wrote:

I'd like to go see that. Can someone charter that famous multi-colored bus?

` But then, when people were wondering about when Barnes and Barnes would make some new songs...

I WANNA make some new music! but Art seems too busy lately. Art,come on, boy! I wanna record "My Bad". A new song i started....

RT-


Nah. I've lost the pep. I used to have the pep, but it's gone now. It's just too hard a business. I'm thinkin' about quitting the music business. It's too depressing. I gotta go... I'll seeya.
` You know, I don't really think Artie's trying to kill me, but I think that he knows or at least he might know, who IS... then again, maybe I'll get back into show business.
` I'm probably the greatest talent on the face of this earth. I'm probably so good I'm too good. This world's not ready for me. That's the way I feel about it. But I could make a come back. You never know. Then again, it's just too hard a business. Would you agree with that?
` Do you blame me for quitting? Yeah. It's a hard business! Think I'll go to Disneyland... Hello? Hello? I gotta go. Give me a ride down the hill... toomp

yeah


` WAAAAAH! But [we] love you, Mr. Lennier-Man! Don't DIE ON US!!!! I love the hippie-red-long-hair Barnes. Without Art Barnes, Barnes and Barnes would be just... Barnes! Think of the children!

` (Wait, what children?)

` Snifflily yours,

S E E Quine

` However, one loyal fan made this astute observation:

Dear All

Something smells fishy here! (no pun intended). Not so many months ago Mr Mumy was saying I want to record again and Mr Haimer was saying NO.

But now, Mr Haimer says he wants to start recording again and Mr Mumy is saying NO!

This sounds like a conspiracy. I think they're taking it in turns to Yes and No to recording new material, just to tease us and keep us hanging around. Damn fiendish stuff. I can just see them talking to each other "whose turn is it to say they want to start recording
again? Tee Hee Hee!"

YOU WILL BE DAMNED TO A WORLD WITH OUT CHEESE AND BEER IN THE NEXT LIFE.

Get off your butts and save us from a world of shite sampled-segment "popular" music that clutters the charts and airways and has no merit to it whatsoever.

` But then... in a message titled;
` An ejaculation of new songs and ideas in my silly little pee pee head!

` No, really, it was...:

I WANT to record again! But Art doesn't love me anymore. Convince him to work with me again, and we can give new and glorious music to the demented world! I (we?) have lotsa ideas. I'm brimming over with new and unexpressed songs!! I need to ejaculate them on to you guys, our loyal following. I want to spray them all over your little heads!

RT Barnes----------


` Um... and I know how much I like to be... *ejaculated* upon... ah... well, how about we pluck his beautiful, long red hair out, strand by strand. I know how unpleasant this sensation is from personal experience; after about a half hour I started crying.
` Like a little girl.
` That should work quite efficiently. ^^

` But if we want to be 'ethically able' and all, we could just talk to him. Perhaps we could discuss it like human beings and encourage him to keep going.
` Believe me, I go through bouts of this all the time. That's why I turned to psychiatric medicine.

S E E Quine

` (FYI, I was going to keep writing, possibly even something about how he'll wind up as insane as Tom Cruise, but I didn't have time to continue, due to something that was going on at that moment.)

Okay. nope. I've lost the pep. I don't wanna record new trivial silly novelty songs. I wanted to make a great new artistic barnes and barnes album. a really bold, non compromised, non "commercial" one of a kind record.
` I bugged pizmo haimer for TEN YEARS to do it. I wrote dozens and dozens of lyrics for it. "Our Dead Dads", "Middle Aged Men", etc... TEN YEARS I carried that flag into battle to no avail. Anyway, he still doesn't want to do it.
` He wants to record "poopy daddy" and stuff like that now. At least he wants to make music now. I probably should just agree to it and consider it a warm up for the "real" deal, right? Okay. Maybe that's what I'll do. If I find the pep. Has anyone out there seen my pep? It seems to have gone to the cornfield...

yeah


Well. I think that the solution, obviously...

...is some kind of two-disc anthology album!

I'm just sayin'.

` The Swill Man wrote:

You mean two-disc rarity album! THAT's what we all want!

` And a few minutes ago, I added:

` Actually, I looked and haven't found it in the cornfield. But I'm afraid one of these days I'm going to find Artie in there...

` Not a pretty sight.

S E E Quine

` Hey, wait a minute... what's this?

maybe you'll find me in the corn hole...... RT-

"Barnes & Barnes- The greatest secret in show business"!!!


` !!!! HOW DO YOU REPLY SO FAST LIKE THAT!!?!?!?!??!!? Do Lumanians have magical powers?

` Oh well. And... I don't think I wanna know about this cornhole business. I do, however, want to know something... ANYTHING about your demented ideas.

` Don't make me come over and dance scantily clad in flying squirrels on your lawn!!!!

` Dementedly yours,

S E E Quine

` P.S. I finally ordered one of your CDs today. ;)

` And... he did it again!... 'An ejaculation of grand designs' (that's what it was called!) popped into my inbox..

I reply quickly to emails because I have no life. I live to serve my large fan base. It is plain to see, no? Back to Jerry Springer show now. Later-
RT-

` So, just now, I wrote back, all melodramatically-like...

D'you really think Art is going to quit Barnes and Barnes? Or even showbusiness altogether? WHAT WILL BECOME OF YOU BOTH?! I can't bear to think!!!
` But if you could, you'd tell me, right?

` Aaaaannnddd... here we go!

Art loves my ass. He will never leave me. He needs me. He needs lots of hugs, too. He is nothing without me. I AM Barnes & Barnes and he knows it. Soon we will make new music. Scarier than before. For I AM RT BARNES------------------

` Ahhh. ^^ That makes me want to dance around your lawn wearing only flying squirrels stitched to my bare flesh! (In happiness, this time, instead of disgruntlement.)
` I'll just have to be careful that your music doesn't cause the squirrels to become alarmed enough to tear themselves free.
` Or... on second thought, I could just ask to come in and watch Jerry Springer or something with you. (Honestly, I didn't know they had him in Lumania!)

You may visit me in your underwear. Thank you......

` Ooh!! I'm a-gettin' awl vapory!!!

` Of course, as this is a public conversation...

Lemme just butt in here...any news on the DVD concert release? Or a rarities release? Huh? I WANT IT!!!


` Anyhow, I suppose Artie's ejaculations of grand designs can be left up to the imagination for now, no matter how much Art helps him out. (And when I phrase it like that, it sounds like something that would be better imagined. Or not imagined at all.)
` Will they go on? Or are they just being nitwits? Only time will tell! And I do hope I'm not getting any 'tabloid points' for all this.

` P.S.; Phil just came home and it blows his mind that I've ever communicated indirectly with the guy who played Lennier. Of course, It's been mostly Robby. He apparently has a lot more time for this kind of thing.

` By the way, I was the one who wrote that on that .jpg waayy back when the only art program I had was cruddy ol' MS Paint.
` Y'know, my handwriting sure looks weird when I'm using a mouse on carpeting...
` ...And you'd know that if EdgeWalker had taken a picture of that crazy comic I drew.
` Like he said he was going to.
` But no, apparently, something called a 'flash' is needed for decent pictures of my sketchbook!

Is this sad?

` I was reading this today...

` Independent specialization of arthropod body segments has led to more than a century of debate on the homology of morphologically diverse segments<sup>1, 2</sup>, each defined by a lateral appendage and a ganglion of the central nervous system.
` The plesiomorphic composition of the arthropod head remains enigmatic because variation in segments and corresponding appendages is extreme. Within extant arthropod classes (Chelicerata, Myriapoda, Crustacea and Hexapoda—including the insects), correspondences between the appendage-bearing second (deutocerebral) and third (tritocerebral) cephalic neuromeres have been recently resolved on the basis of immunohistochemistry¹ and Hox gene expression patterns^{3, 4}. However, no appendage targets the first ganglion, the protocerebrum, and the corresponding segmental identity of this anterior region remains unclear⁵.
` Reconstructions of stem-group arthropods indicate that the anteriormost region originally might have borne an ocular apparatus and a frontal appendage innervated by the protocerebrum⁶. However, no study of the central nervous system in extant arthropods has been able to corroborate this idea directly, although recent analyses of cephalic gene expression patterns in insects suggest a segmental status for the protocerebral region^{7, 8, 9, 10}.

` Here we investigate the developmental neuroanatomy of a putative basal arthropod¹¹, the pycnogonid sea spider, with immunohistochemical techniques. We show that the first pair of appendages, the chelifores, are innervated at an anterior position on the protocerebrum. This is the first true appendage shown to be innervated by the protocerebrum, and thus pycnogonid chelifores are not positionally homologous to appendages of extant arthropods but might, in fact, be homologous to the 'great appendages' of certain Cambrian stem-group arthropods.

` And I realized something: "I am seriously out of touch with my inner biologist!"
` Sadly, I can only understood 3/4 of what that means! Am I doomed to continue forgetting what I've learned over the years?

` What is to become of me!??!

` This post brought to you by a severe bout of sarcasm. Laugh monkeys, laugh!

Spybot Search and Destroy... good, but needs more than one server!

` After I finally found a functional update download mirror (in Australia) today, Spybot Search and Destroy has found a couple of things, including the overly-conspicuous Windows Security Center AntiVirus Override. (Not that I would actually trust Microsoft to kill viruses for me, okay?)
` The most noticeable thing that's improved?

` Mozilla seems to be in working order!!!

` Also, my computer isn't shutting itself down every time I leave the room anymore.
` This is why I was also really happy when I found a backup file for my novel, which had somehow been whacked back to being last updated on October 4th. You see, on Oct 16th, I'd left my computer after a lot of frenzied hard work (apparently without saving?), and when I came back, it had shut itself off! When I started up Word again, I found that all my progress had not been recorded, and couldn't find any autosave files! (Usually, it's one or the other.) Crazy!
` It sounds weird, but I think I know a perfectly logical explanation having to do with the constant malfunctioning of my computer. A backup file I found, however, was dated October 12th! So I thought I'd found what I'd been working on! But when I looked again, I saw that it was from last year... apparently, I'm going to have to do most of this month's hard work all over again. Joy.
` And I had just added a brand-new scene!!! Waaaaaaaaahhh!

` How these things happen, I don't know. But I just wanted to tell anyone who cares, i.e., people in the writer's groups, whoever, that they will probably not be getting any more 'viruses ate my work' excuses.

Links for all! (Plus, some bonus 'WTF?' links!)

` Thank you, Aaron! Because of you and your html knowledge, I now have links!

` And so, a post about them! In roughly the same order as you see them!

` Of course, I've got some of my fellow blogger pals up here; from Cassie, whose neat-o blog was one I discovered more recently; to The Swill Man in Massachusetts; my roommate, EdgeWalker; and the personal ramblings of Turkish Chic - a.k.a. the Litchtucky-Charred Weirdo - who's hung out with me a lot in Ohio.

` BTW, look where EdgeWalker was the other day! (I swear, this man's like Gollum!) He and Phil hiked, scrambled, and even climbed straight up for over eight miles just to get up there! That called for a celebration dinner at Smashed Tomatoes!

` Moving on: The first people to really encourage me to write were the Medina Writer's Club, though it's been split into two different clubs by now. I used to go to meetings with President Dory, Georgie-Porgie, Chrissy the Cookie Chick, Jim-Jim, Danald, Franz, Marvin and a few other people whose names I don't remember...
` Surprisingly, these people actually saw my real personality below my newly- and poorly-prescribed medication-crazed guise, and accepted me, which was a big surprise, as I thought I'd gone insane or something the way I was freaking out all the time. No matter. As self-conscious as I felt, I kept going there because I actually had people who cared about my writing ability and nurtured it!
` George and Dory always had the most to say as far as critiquing goes, and so it isn't surprising that I've revised my work accordingly to their comments the most. The others' comments, too, I took to heart. I really learned a lot there! (I also decided to stop taking the unneccesary medication, so they even got to know 'the real me' for a time.) If it weren't for that club, I don't think I'd be an advanced writer today!
` However... all that's changed so much... all the members have been split up among two groups, basically.
` I've also put Chris's website up - as I recall, her prototype cookies were always so good, even the ones that got dried out in the oven!

` Dan's my cousin from Ohio, who ironically also moved out to this area after living in Hawaii for a while. He takes some good photos, lemme tell ya! He's also been all over the world! Check out his photo blog if ya have time! There's even some useless trivia about us: we have the same birthday! More useless trivia: He's my only maternal cousin who my insane dad didn't give a stupid nickname to. His poor brother, Richard...

` And would you believe - I used to be neighbors with Bill and Rhonda Fels and their formerly dehydrated dog, Jason. Sometimes I'd talk with Rhonda when she let Jason out back. The main thing I remember about Bill is that he seemed perfectly nice - he even gave my car a jump!
` Yes, he appeared to be quite normal, considering that he was starting this PetRefresh thing with local spring water. After they'd moved out to SC, Rhonda sent me an article from the Wall Street Journal, showing just how sucessful this business is - yes, the one Rhonda and I had rolled our eyes at!

` Oh, and the last one... Barnes and Barnes' website, brought to you by the Lumanian Council of Arts and Linoleum. We don't really know each other, though... well, I'm sure if Art and Artie Barnes think anything of me at all, 'demented' would hopefully be in there.


` As you can tell, I love science. It is my friend. I would marry science, if it were not for my lack of ambition. I've put up some science reference and news pages which I try to get to as much as I can. A lot of that stuff's free for the public to view, so view away!


` Skepticism's also a big one. I really enjoy reading (though rarely, as I have little time) Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer magazines, which is why I've put up Skeptic's and CSICOP's websites. Heck, there's so much stuff on their websites that you don't really need to read the magazines in order to come across a bunch of decent material!

` Oh, and apparently, Penn & Teller: Bullshit! is proof that comedy and skepticism do go together! It's one show that makes me wish I had more than two channels. Such as ShoTime.
` From what I can tell via reviews and the video clips on the website, it's actually a decent skeptical show with my favorite dark humor magician men... Penn Gilette and... the quiet one, whatsisface.

` What else? Bad Astronomy. I like that one. The 'Face' on Mars, the 'moon hoax', and astrology are but a few 'bad' topics Phil Plait has explored. I definitely reccommend this for information about what is and isn't astronomy.

` I am especially interested in common descent and the theory which explains it, called Darwinian Evolution. I'm also fascinated with the fact that some people don't accept it, and am thoroughly amused with their arguments. That's why I've put up Understanding Evolution, which is at the Berkely website. It's like a little science course to help explain to children and laymen alike just what evolution is, and what it isn't, thereby dispelling many of its varied myths.
` Myths and misperceptions are a big part of what anti-evolutionists use to argue that 'it just ain't so'. A lot of this can be seen at the Talk.Origins website, which is a huge source of entertainment whenever I go there. No really, I laugh insanely. I can't help it.
` Of course, a neat blog I occasionally visit is Dr. P. Z. Myer's Pharyngula. It also has a 'pirate mode' for some unimaginable reason, making it Phaaaryngula, with a chest full of booty!


` As you can tell, I am also very against the anti-human rights cult of $cientology, complete with Xenu the evil alien who's been in jail for millions of years, run by a totalitarian system of people who basically keep secrets and lie a lot in order to coerce each other into doing its bidding. They're not even allowed to talk to each other about Xenu, or any other aspect of $cientology.
` One of the posts I've not finished is, in fact, about $cientology, and at the moment, I'd describe it as sickening, yet humorous... Sort of like another Blogger's post, which is a transcript of Tom Cruise going insane on the Today Show, annonated slightly, and with goofy pictures representing the unhinged Cruise.
` Basically, those links can show you all you need to know about this... product of a misanthropic schizophrenic, best known for destroying families, bank accounts, and of course, the human spirit, all without the victim realizing it.
` GRRRRRRRRR. Enough of this!


` As you can see, my favorite comic strip is still Zebra Girl by Joe England, about which I once wrote a Joe-approved review! Yes, Zebra Girl: It's not easy bein' something people fear and loathe. Hilarity ensues!
` Also, I've always had an eye for Jenadelle's art. Go ahead, gaze upon a dark, oppressive world of intelligent rat-people and dragons! It's fun!
` I'll try to add some more stuff in this section, hopefully something less... dreary-looking, though just as beautiful.


` And yes, I do enjoy my languages. Even fake ones, like Klingon. Oh yes, I am indeed Klung on Klingon. And you will be too at the KLI!
` ...Yeah. Though when I'm looking for an English word, I like the OneLook Reverse Dictionary. It's usually better than a thesaurus. RhymeZone is also very handy when I'm trying to come up with lyrics.
` Other languages are cool, too. Reading Japanese for the Western Brain makes me wonder how people in the East can ever communicate with people in the West. Alas, they have been separate too long!


` I also have a few additional links on THIS POST ONLY!! I didn't find them worthy enough to put on the blog proper:

` The horrors of dihydrogen monoxide! Yes, folks, I wouldn't have thought it, but pretty much anything can be made to look like a very dangerous health hazard!
` If you don't know what dihydrogen monoxide is, consider that if you breathe it in, you could die! In its solid form, DHMO exposed to soft tissue can cause severe damage. It's also a major constituent of acid rain! It can cause short-circuits! Thermal variations of dihydrogen monoxide are associated with El Nino! It is used to fight fires, it is crucial for the functioning of nuclear power plants, and is a by-product of air-conditioners!
` Please tell me you've figured out what it is by now.
` Also, the site says: 'Studies have shown that even after careful washing, food and produce that has been contaminated by DHMO remains tainted by DHMO.'
` Well? It is true...
` On the other hand, the Friends of Hydrogen Hydroxide say that this same substance occurs in nature, is beneficial to life forms, and is a vital part of the ecosphere!
` That is also correct!!
` I find this to be one of many amusing caracature of fanatics and politics. That's why I bring it up.


` What else is just as freaky-looking? Hmmm... dolphinsex.org has been taken down... but you wouldn't want to see that, anyway. At least, I should hope... Hmmmm.

` Aha!

` Behold... Apocamon! I have no idea what it is, but I watched the first one... clearly a lot of work went into this! It's... ummmm. Yeah. I really liked the part when George W. Bush was like; "And if I am wrong, may God strike me down..."
` Oh yeah... they went there!

` That reminds me - I've recently discovered the Google bombing in which the search results for the word 'failure' or the phrase 'miserable failure' brings up president George W. Bush's official biography as being the most relevant.
` Now, if one should Google for 'Intelligent Design', I think it would be fitting if this came up...


` What else? Well, if you're inclined to lose your mind, I used to say; "Pick out an episode and sit back", but... sorry!
` Tragic.
` Well, at least I've finally discovered from where Quizno's got its creepy sponge monkeys... Stay away if you're not prepared, though.
` However, its 'flat breads' commercials (which I've seen thanks to the Swill Man)... that was a Barnes and Barnes parody... though they weren't allowed to sing it. Darn for them!

` In the same vein, I would add a link to Don Hertzfeld's insane stick figure animation, Rejected, though I can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet. Why? Because... My spoon's too big! Uh... no, actually it's probably really hard to find nowadays because it's being sold on DVD.
` "For the love of God and all that is holy... my anus is bleeding!"
` "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!"
` I just love those things.

` If anyone has more weird links suggestions, feel free to tell me. Anyway, time to stuff envelopes or something. Later!